Condé Nast HOUSE & GARDEN Celebrated designer Neil Stemmet’s uncompromising green philosophy makes you sit up and notice. The idea behind the construction of de kelders private villa was to celebrate creativity, both natural and human. So often amazing...

ELLE DÉCOR The De Kelders PRIVATE retreat, near Gansbaai, has a spirit of quiet kindness, thoughtful generosity and relaxed ease where there is space for both lively conversation and rejuvenating silence. Living in De Kelders is like living in an eternal Sunday;...

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Condé Nast
HOUSE & GARDEN

Celebrated designer Nëil Stemmet’s uncompromising green philosophy makes you sit up and notice. The idea behind the construction of De Kelders Private Villa was to celebrate creativity, both natural and human. So often amazing things in life is overlooked. It’s about taking time out from modern life and looking at a tree trunk to remind you of the dual functions of beauty and sustainability.

Objects tell stories and enrich our interiors and our lives. At De Kelders PRIVATE Villa you will be inspired by the people, places and ideas that make this home a personal memory map of the owners. The house and indigenous gardens are custom designed by the owners and have received international acclaim for the sublime interior vignettes and eco-friendly building ethos: natural cross ventilation air flow, large windows that capture heat in winter, rain water is captured and used in the large vegetable beds, a single large hearth with a large combustion oven heat for the lounge, combustion ovens in all bedrooms, solar heated water heats the water for showers, and where possible the vertebrae of the old house were recycled into the new home.

The owner: “My favorite time is from autumn to spring, the days are crisper and shorter, you can see the weather moving over Walker Bay, the sunsets are even more spectacular than in summer, there is a gentle quietness in the area, few people, champagne days filled with soft, glorious sunshine, schools of dolphins cut through the sea that display the colors of mother of pearl, the succulent-aloes cover themselves with vibrant flower cloaks, the whales arrive mid-June and our days are spent reading, walking the cliffs, exploring new bays and flora whilst at supper time enjoying feasts of simple produce of the Overberg…”

ELLE DECOR

“The De Kelders PRIVATE retreat, near Gansbaai, has a spirit of quiet kindness, thoughtful generosity and relaxed ease where there is space for both lively conversation and rejuvenating silence. Living in De Kelders is like living in an eternal Sunday; nothing is open, the streets are empty and everything is peaceful.

Designer Nëil Stemmet of Koncept Design and Architecture (www.konceptdesign.co.za) designed the home to complement the laid-back yet incredibly sophisticated style of this beach home in De Kelders.

Just because a house is at the sea doesn’t mean it needs to look like a beach house, yet the luxury of coastal solitude and stillness runs like a thread through Nëil’s home. He pays homage to authenticity, to the return, to real quality, intuitive design, all while celebrating uniquely crafted items. In a noisy world of consumerism, of acceleration and information bombardment, his home stands as a beacon of Zen, where he continuously finds fresh inspiration, where he allows himself to be free of dictation of trends, where he can be real.”